Kagome, possessed by the Spirit Demon
by Groping-Monk
Summary: Inuyasha and Kagomes makes Love blossom in the air! But is it really Kagome or someone else


Inu Yasha sat in his tree outside of the village and watched the sky turn shades of red, and the sun set. Every sound jerked him about, ready with some scathing condemnation of Kagome's inability to keep a schedule, but each time it turned out to be a villager or an animal. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon!" She'd told him as she'd swung her legs over the side of the well and dropped down into her own time. She had a test in school this morning, she'd said, very important. Hmph! What could be more important than finding the shards of the Shikon Jewel? Inu Yasha frowned crossly at the sunset. "Feh! Probably gossiping with her stupid friends!" And yet, he had a bad feeling that something wasn't right. It wouldn't be unusual for Kagome to be late arriving from the future, but she'd never been this late. Except for that time when the Noh mask demon attacked her in her time, and she sent her brother into the well to bring him to the future to save her. That was different: She hadn't planned to return for another day that time. He hopped out of the tree and took off into the air, headed for the Bone Eaters Well, deep in the forest where he'd been a prisoner until Kagome came and freed him to save her and the villagers from Mistress Centipede. After that, it was the crow demon, then Yura of the Hair, then his own brother—demon after demon trying to get the shards of the Jewel of Four Souls, and Inu Yasha always had to save Kagome from some peril or another! Well, alright, she could take care of herself sometimes. Sometimes—just sometimes—she was actually resourceful and didn't get in his way. Everything could have been so much simpler if she'd just given him the jewel when he'd asked for it in the first place! If she hadn't listened to that witch Kaede's advice and kept the jewel, then the crow demon wouldn't have stolen it, Kagome wouldn't have shot it with an arrow, and the jewel wouldn't now be split into who-knew-how-many pieces and scattered all over Nippon! Stupid girl! The jewel was his by right! Who did she think she was coming from the future and shattering the blasted thing? If her looks hadn't given it away, he would have believed her to be Kikyo reborn by her actions alone! The prayer bead necklace swung around his neck as he landed outside the forest and stalked with great purpose and irritation inside, headed for the well that was Kagome's link between her time and his. The beads. If that wasn't a curse! No amount of brute force could remove them, and because of them a single command from Kagome's lips left him face down in dirt, unable to rise. Humiliating! They were like a leash on a dog! And that command—"SIT!" Inu Yasha fumed as he stalked through the trees, fists clenched tight, and his teeth grinding. "She treats me like a common mutt!" Well, that wasn't entirely true. She didn't pet him, or feed him scraps, or try to make him do tricks, though it would be nice to have his ears scratched one in a while. It was just the principle of the thing: A ridiculous mortal girl who dresses funny shouldn't be allowed to have that much power over a demon! Especially not this— "Kagome?" All he could see of her around the well was her lower legs with their usual weird stockings and ugly shoes. He couldn't see her pack, but its contents were scattered about nearby, as if it had exploded when it hit the ground. Inu Yasha sniffed the air and his ears twisted around, but the only scent that came to him was Kagome's and the only sounds the ordinary forest noises. As he approached the well, more of Kagome became visible: No scratches or bruises, nothing that would give any indication that she'd been in a struggle. She was on her stomach, arms flung over her head, one leg bent, dark hair covering her face. | |"Kagome?" He carefully brushed her hair aside and was | | |relieved to find her face showed no signs of abuse. He | | |sniffed her on reflex, though he wasn't sure what | | |information his nose was seeking. Shaking her didn't | | |produce any kind of reaction at all, so he shook her | | |harder. Nothing, not even a flicker of an eyelid. He gently| | |rolled her onto her back and lay his ear against her chest:| | |Good, a heartbeat, though disturbingly slow. A hand over | | |her nose confirmed shallow breathing. This was not good. He| | |studied the ground around the well and found signs that | | |someone had entered the clearing from the forest and | | |returned through it, rather than through the well, which | | |meant feet other than Kagome's had crushed the grass. But| | |if she'd been attacked, why didn't her body show the | | |sort of signs a struggle would have left behind? He | | |returned his attention to Kagome, who looked for all the | | |world as if she was merely having a nap beside the well. | | Suddenly, Inu Yasha gasped and started sorting through | | |Kagome's belongings that were strewn on the ground. Not there! | | |He upended her pack and went through the things that fell out of | | |it: Hairbrush, packages of noodles, soap, clothes—where were | | |they?! The pockets sewn onto the pack were the next to fall under| | |attack, but all Inu Yasha found there was Kagome's schoolbooks.| | |Whoever or whatever had been in the clearing with Kagome, | | |they'd stolen her shards of the Jewel of Four Souls. "Curse | | |them!" He hurriedly stuffed her things into her pack, slung| | |it over his shoulder then very carefully lifted Kagome into his | | |arms and headed back for the village as fast as he could without | | |jostling her. The missing shards indicated a demon. A mortal | | |attacker probably wouldn't have known what to look for and | | |would have tried to—they would've hurt her, there'd be | | |marks on her, signs that she'd fought someone. Her clothes | | |would be damaged. Something! So, it had to be a demon, since a | | |demon would be able to sense the shards. A demon would have | | |powerful magic, maybe even the kind that could subdue an opponent| | |without touching them. Maybe Kagome was just under a sleep spell.| | |Well, if it was magic, Kaede should be able to break the spell, | | |then Kagome could tell him who had stolen the jewel shards. After| | |that, it would be a simple matter of tracking down the thief and | | |reclaiming what was his. And killing the demon, of course. | | |Couldn't leave the competition running free, able to attack | | |again some other time. Not to mention the matter of | | |revenge. By the time he reached Kaede's house, Inu Yasha | | |was leading a parade of curious, worried villagers that no amount| | |of snarling and cursing on his part could shake. His relief was | | |immeasurable when at last the flap closed behind him and the only| | |crazy human he had to deal with was Kaede. The old woman unrolled| | |a futon and bid Inu Yasha lay Kagome down on it, then she covered| | |the girl with a kimono and began her examination—both of Kagome| | |and Inu Yasha. "What happened?" Kaede demanded as she felt | | |Kagome's head for fever and checked her heart and breathing | | |rates. She made a worried face over the last two indicators of | | |life and sat back on her heels with a deep frown. "I found | | |her by the well," Inu Yasha explained impatiently. "I don't | | |know what happened to her!" Myoga the flea hopped up Inu | | |Yasha's arm onto his shoulder and observed: "No signs of a | | |struggle. Was there any sign that anyone had been in the clearing| | |with her?" "Crushed grass in a trail to and from Kagome," | | |Inu Yasha replied, "nothing more." Then with a low growl, he | | |added solemnly: "They took her jewel shards." "Indicating a| | |demon, more likely than not," Kaede mused. She lay her hands on | | |Kagome's face and closed her eyes in concentration, her extra | | |senses searching the girl's body for signs of magic. With a | | |sudden intake of breath, Kaede's eyes flew open and she jerked | | |her hands away from Kagome's face. "No! How can this be?" | | | The fear in Kaede's expression made Inu Yasha's heart | | |skip a beat. "What?!" He demanded. "What is it? What's wrong | | |with her? Talk to me, hag! What do you sense? Magic?" Kaede| | |nodded, recovering somewhat from the initial shock of the | | |discovery. She tucked the kimono more closely about Kagome and | | |softly stroked her hair. "Strong magic, very strong. And | | |something far worse." She looked into Inu Yasha's golden eyes, | | |holding the usually impatient demon's attention better than | | |even the jewel ever did as he waited to hear what had been done | | |to Kagome that could possibly be worse than magic. Myoga hopped | | |from Inu Yasha's shoulder to Kagome's then to Kaede's. | | | "Tell us, Lady," he asked hesitantly, unsure if he really | | |wanted to hear what was coming. "Whatever it is, Lord Inu Yasha | | |can set it right! D-don't look so frightened." A few | | |months ago, Kaede wouldn't have found that in any way | | |reassuring, but things had changed between Inu Yasha and this | | |girl who was the reincarnation of the woman who had slain him | | |with an enchanted arrow. He still called her "fool" sometimes, | | |swore she was a curse on his very existence, or that he'd be | | |glad when he could finally be free of her, but Kaede wasn't | | |fooled. The half-demon's body spoke volumes right now: Muscles | | |tense, knuckles white on balled fists, ears pricked eagerly | | |forward, eyes wide and full of worry and fear. And that time | | |Kagome had forced him back through the well and left him alone | | |for an entire week...he'd almost lost his mind waiting and | | |watching for her return. Kaede knew the beginnings of love when | | |she saw them, and the irony of Inu Yasha and Kagome's | | |relationship didn't escape her, either. Kikyo would have called| | |it "closure", events once tragic coming around again for a happy | | |ending. | |  
  
Well, there'd be no happy ending if Myoga's faith in his master's ability to "set right" what was wrong with Kagome was misplaced. Kaede closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them again, she said: "Her soul is missing." It took a few moments for that to sink in with Inu Yasha and Myoga. When they recovered, their protests came out in a tumble of disbelief. "How is that possible?!" Inu Yasha sputtered at the same time Myoga asked: "What kind of demon can steal a young girl's soul?!" Kaede shook her head. "None that I've heard of," she admitted slowly. "I'd hoped one of you might have a clue..." Inu Yasha racked his brains but it was no use: He'd never heard of a demon that could steal souls. Not one that was alive, anyway. He and Kagome disposed of the toad demon and beyond that one, he was at a loss to think of another. Myoga wasn't doing any better. Kaede sighed heavily. "Then we're dealing with a new demon—" "New or old makes no difference to me!" Inu Yasha cracked his knuckles and showed his fangs in a dangerous grin. "They can still die." He nodded to Kagome's unconscious form. "Watch over her, old hag, and leave the demon slaying to me." As he stood up to leave, Myoga hopped back to his shoulder. "I will accompany you, my lord. Lady Kaede, take care of Kagome until we return!" "She hasn't much time," Kaede told them grimly. "A Human can only survive so long without its soul." Inu Yasha squatted down beside Kagome again. Her face was pale but peaceful and relaxed, as if she was only sleeping. She didn't have the look of a dying woman to him, and he'd killed enough Humans to know what they looked like as they lay dying. True, he'd never sat deathwatch for an ailing Human, but death is death. Isn't it? He resisted the desire to touch her cheek to see if it had grown cold or not. Myoga for one would certainly misinterpret that gesture, then he'd have to listen to the little coward nag him about his supposed affection for Kagome. If anyone had an affection for the girl, it was Myoga, not him. "How long?" He asked Kaede. She shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I don't think she can survive past three days without her soul. You'd better hurry." Inu Yasha snarled: "Of course, we'd better hurry, witch!" He turned to leave once more, got as far as the door and paused to look over his shoulder one last time at Kagome. The glance lasted only a moment, then he was through the door and gone into the night, headed back toward the forest to find that trail the thief had left by the well. Three days at the most, then Kagome would die. Inu Yasha repeated that thought to himself several times, trying to imagine questing for the jewel shards without his weird companion. It would just be him and Myoga, then, if one could count the flea who hid whenever danger loomed near. At least Kagome stayed to fight at his side, nearly as fearless as he was, or perhaps just stubborn. In his mind he saw her standing on a hill amidst Yura's web of hair, bow in hand, his cloak on her back, her face set in a look of absolute confidence that she would win that fight. Then she'd loosed the bow and shattered Yura's nest. Then he saw her facing down Sessho Maru with the Tetsusaiga clenched in her hands, not caring that the brother of Inu Yasha was a full-demon who saw her kind as ants to be trodden underfoot. Her eyes when she'd handed him his father's sword... believing beyond question that he would find the key to unlock the power of the Steel Cleaving Fang and destroy his cruel brother. He flexed his claws, anticipating rending the flesh of the demon who had stolen the shards of the Jewel of Four Souls... and Kagome's soul with them. Failure was unthinkable: He would find this demon-thief and reclaim the shards, then destroy the creature for daring to harm his—his—Feh! She was nothing to him, just a strange girl who wore the face of the woman who'd killed him and taken what was rightfully his. A girl who'd bound him to herself with a collar of prayer beads and who humiliated him at will with the command "Sit!". It hurt when she did that, having his face mushed into the dirt. She pushed him around, always telling him where he should be and when. Ha! Until she needed rescuing! Then it was, "Inu Yasha, help me! Inu Yasha, I need you! Inu Yasha, do something!" As if he was a servant at her beck and call! "Lord Inu Yasha," Myoga said in his ear as they flew over the village fields, heading at top speed for the deep shadows of the forest. "I just had a terrible thought: How will we reclaim Kagome's soul and return it to her once we've found this demon?" "It will return to her when the demon dies, of course!" Even as he said it, Inu Yasha had doubts about that assertion. What if Kagome's soul perished with the demon? No! He wouldn't think like that! If simply killing the demon wasn't the answer, then he'd find the way while he fought the creature. He always did! He didn't even finish that thought before he realized it was usually Kagome who did the figuring out. It was her mind that was creative, her eyes that saw past the obvious. Well, then, he would simply have to think creatively. It didn't take Inu Yasha and Myoga long to catch up to Shippo, who, as it turned out, had rediscovered the trail. Or more correctly, the one who had made the trail had discovered Shippo. Inu Yasha crested a small hill in time to see the little fox spirit slam against a tree with a painful gasp, then drop to the earth where he lay, unmoving, while a small woman in elaborate kimono crept toward him, giggling. Not a happy, pleasant giggle that inspired good feelings in the demons hearing it, but a cruel, hungry giggle that gave even Inu Yasha a chill. "Woman!" Inu Yasha shouted. She paused in her stalking of the unconscious Shippo and turned her head to see who had hailed her. Her movement was stiff and deliberate, almost jerky. Her hair was jet black and she had beautiful dark brown eyes set in an ivory face. Those lovely eyes didn't blink as she stared at her challenger and showed no emotion at all. Sparkles at the base of her throat caught Inu Yasha's eye: A dozen slivers of the Shikon Jewel imbedded in her skin. "The Jewel!" He gasped, just as Shippo moaned, drawing her attention back to her prey. Myoga clung to a bead near Inu Yasha's neck and watched the strange woman approach the helpless kitsune. "A demon! Stop her, Lord Inu—WHOA!" "Pick on someone your own size!" Inu Yasha charged down the hill, meaning to tackle her, but in a ripple of movement, she was behind him. A surprisingly strong hand slapped him between the shoulders, and to his complete astonishment, Inu Yasha tumbled across the grass and up the next hill. He jumped to his feet with an angry snarl. "No kidding, she's a demon! And she has Kagome's jewel shards!""And probably her soul, as well," Myoga finished in a trembling voice while clinging for dear life to his chosen prayer bead. Inu Yasha cracked his knuckles and watched the demon-woman as she turned in her weird way to face him. Too-white skin, eyes that didn't blink, and her tiny, unmoving red mouth seemed painted on her face. Shippo came to and started shaking the cobwebs out of his head. The demon paused, and her head jerked Shippo's way, then jerked back to Inu Yasha. | |Shippo recovered enough to get up on his feet and make| | |a dash for Inu Yasha's position on high ground, but | | |another ripple, and the creature pinned him under a | | |delicate, sandalled foot. "Inu Yasha! Help me! She's| | |the one! Ungh!" The demon put her weight onto | | |Shippo's back, and he cried out in agony as it | | |threatened to break. "I will kill him," the demon said| | |in a voice that was as jerky as her movements when she| | |turned her head to address Inu Yasha. "You will not | | |attack." | | |"Won't I?!" Inu Yasha charged the demon again, but | | |she backflipped out of the way, somehow scooping up | | |Shippo with her feet and carrying him with her, and | | |landed square on his back. |  
  
There was a stomach-turning crack, Shippo screamed, then the little fox fainted. The demon hopped off his back and turned once again to Inu Yasha. "Dead. Now you will leave." "D-d-dead?" Myoga shivered at his master's throat. Inu Yasha grit his teeth and glared at his opponent with narrowed eyes. Curse her! "Shippo..." Charging her was useless. She was too fast. He needed another tactic. "You have something of mine," he snarled. "Give it back." She cocked her head at him. "What is yours?" He drew the Tetsusaiga and used its rusty, battered blade to point at her throat. "Those are mine. And Kagome's soul. Give them back," he twisted the ancient sword for effect, "or die." The demon still didn't blink. A doll! But she was almost life sized. If he could've stood her up next to Kagome, the doll's head would just about reach the girl's shoulder. She was clothed in the kimono of a fine court lady, layer upon layer of brightly-colored silk, flowing in a rainbow hued puddle at her tiny feet. Her long, glossy, black hair was tied halfway down her back with a cord of red silk, the ponytail almost touching the ground. Had she been a real girl, she would've been stunning, but she wasn't a real girl. She was doll, a demon, and as far as Inu Yasha was concerned she was about to die. "Kagome?" The doll asked in her small, careful voice. Inu Yasha thought he saw Shippo move but didn't dare attract the creature's attention to the boy, lest she really finish him off. Kagome would never, ever forgive him for letting her little friend get killed by a doll. "She came out of a well. You took her soul and those shards. Give them back." "Ah," said the doll simply. "They are mine now. These things will give me life." A perfect, pale hand jerked up to touch the shards, then moved to where a human's heart would beat, then dropped back to her side. "Go away. I have no use for males." |"Well, there's a lucky break," Myoga commented, and got flicked| | |into the grass for his rapier wit. | | |"Yeah? Well, this male has no use for you, either," Inu Yasha | | |told her with a cruel glint in his eyes and a low growl in his | | |chest. His ears laid back against his skull as his fist tightened| | |around the Tetsusaiga's hilt. "Except as someplace to put my | | |sword!" | | |This time he was ready for her when she tried to get behind him | | |and dropped to the ground and twisted about, driving his sword | | |upwards into her wooden body where it stuck with a dull thuck. | | |"HA! Huh?" Inu Yasha jerked and jerked with all his strength, but| | |the Testsusaiga wouldn't come free. | |  
  
The doll looked down at the rotted blade with her dull eyes, then wrapped both hands around it and pulled it out of her gut. "Stupid." She heaved the sword skyward, taking the startled demon dog with it, then brought it and Inu Yasha down with an earth rocking crash that sent him tumbling, leaving his sword in her hands. She tossed it in the air and caught it by the hilt as it came down. "Now you die." Up into the air she went in a tidy somersault and brought the Tetsusaiga down with all of her weight and strength behind it. Inu Yasha rolled out of the way and onto his feet. With a furious roar, he drove his fist into her face and was rewarded with the sound of every single joint in his fingers popping out of place. A second later the pain reached his brain, but Inu Yasha had no time to deal with it as the demon launched a full-out onslaught against him with his own sword. She cut, he jumped—cut, jump, cut, jump! Then he dropped and took her feet out from under her with a powerful kick to her knees. The Tetsusaiga flew from her hands when she hit the ground, and Inu Yasha jumped over her prone body to reclaim it. In a flash, he had the sword over the shards in her neck, but she was too fast and the blade buried itself in the ground as she rippled away. A shimmer to his right sent Inu Yasha dashing in the opposite direction. The doll froze and watched him prepare for his next attack. "You cannot win," she told him, "I am not alive and, so, cannot be killed and do not tire. You already grow weak." How was she able to move so fast? When she stood still, her movements were as awkward as a doll's, but when she dodged his attacks, she moved like the wind! Inu Yasha was positive the shards were the key to neutralizing this demon. He'd almost got her once, he could do it again. He shook out his injured hand, ignoring the burning pain and swelling, and made a note not to use his fists for the rest of the fight. The Tetsusaiga remained stubbornly crummy for some mysterious reason. "I'm fighting to save Kagome, you stupid sword," he cursed it, "what else do you want?" Fighting for Kagome usually brought out the blade's true form: A giant, demonic fang—his father's fang. Why didn't it change? He waited for some sage remark from Myoga, then remembered he'd flicked the flea from his shoulder after the demon jumped on Shippo. Probably didn't have a clue, anyway. "You talk to much," he growled at the doll through clenched teeth and wound up for another charge, which the demon avoided as easily as she had his other attacks, grabbed his wrist and added her strength to his momentum. The combined force sent him crashing into a tree with a loud crunch. "AUGH!" He shook his head, but his vision remained blurry. "Curse...you..." Something damp on the back of his skull... drizzle on his neck..."Ungh..." Inu Yasha tucked his sword under his arm and reached a hand back to investigate. It returned to his shaky gaze covered in blood. The blood dripped off his fingertips onto the Tetsusaiga's blade and trickled down its length and into the dirt between his feet. Inu Yasha watched it in distracted fascination for what seemed an eternity until a pair of sandals and a pool of silk covered the blood stained grass. Palms like sledgehammers cracked his shoulders out of joint, then broke his ribs, then popped out his hips. Inu Yasha crumpled to the ground, not noticing when the Tetsusaiga slipped from his grasp and thumped onto the dirt beside him. He heard something go crack, then he blacked out. "Lord Inu Yasha! Lord Inu Yasha wake up! Please!" Feh! Stupid flea! Shut up! It was nice lying there in the warm grass, quiet and peaceful (if Myoga would just give it a rest). "Lord Inu Yasha!" The pain awoke first—nowhere specific, just everywhere his body could hurt. Inu Yasha groaned miserably and tried to roll over, only to find he couldn't move. "Mee—oga?" The elated flea was absolutely beside himself with joy as he hopped around near his master's nose and wept. "Thank the gods, I thought you'd had it, M'Lord!" "Eh?" He tried to move again and, again, failed. The pain was like nothing he'd ever experienced. What had happened to him? Inu Yasha forced his mind to recall the events of the previous night (he hoped it was "previous" and not longer ago than that): A big doll, with shards of the Shikon Jewel stuck in her neck...moved like lightning...flipping around like an acrobat. She'd gotten Shippo. "Myoga?" "I'm here, Lord!" The flea stopped hopping about and lay a gentle hand on Inu Yasha's nose. "Shippo?" "He'll recover," Myoga told him. "She didn't break his back, after all, fortunately, just...hurt it very badly." Inu Yasha closed his eyes against sunlight that was way too bright. Were they in the place where they'd fought the doll demon? He opened his eyes again: Yes, just out of the corner of his eye, there was the tree she'd slammed him against just before giving him the pounding of his life. Damn! No one had ever beaten him this badly! What kind of demon was she? Was it the shards that gave her so much power and strength? It had to be! "I can't move," he said in voice so weak it made him cringe in shame. Myoga wrung his hands and sweat. "Yes, well, it seems she managed to break your ribs and throw your shoulders and hips out of joint...as well as your back. I think. Not to mention your hand. Can you feel anything?" "Lot's of pain." The flea wrung his hands some more. "Where, specifically?" A growl rumbled in Inu Yasha's throat as he impatiently replied: "Everywhere, you fool!" "Whew!" Myoga mopped his brow his sleeve and sighed. "That means your back isn't broken. What a relief!" That depended entirely upon your point of view, thought the injured demon sourly. Myoga was right, of course. A broken back wasn't something that would heal in the time they had to find that demon again and destroy her this time. Not that his other injuries would heal completely in that time, but they'd mend enough for him to fight her if he could manage to ignore the pain. What he needed was for someone to put his joints and ribs back in place. He looked around as best he could in his position: The only candidates were Myoga who was way too small and weak, and Shippo who wasn't conscious and was hurt himself. This was very bad. "How long was I out?" "Just one night, M'Lord," Myoga answered, then added as if reading his mind: "We still have two days to save Kagome." Inu Yasha closed his eyes in frustration. "And that doll has a whole night's head start! Did you see what direction she went in?" Myoga nodded. "South, M'Lord, back the way she came. Puzzling, isn't it? I wonder why she went that way?" "Kagome." | |The flea blanched and took a few startled steps backward. | | |"But—why? She has Kagome's soul, what else could she want?" | | |A tear lodged in the corner of Inu Yasha's eye, and he forced | | |himself not to blink so it wouldn't fall. Myoga was right: What| | |further use could a soul-stealing demon have for a girl whose | | |soul she already had? He was just overreacting, letting his | | |imagination get the best of him. Had to be the pain clouding his | | |mind. "I don't know. Follow her, Myoga." | | |"But—My Lord!" The flea protested. |  
  
Inu Yasha instinctively tried to goosh him, but was reminded rather painfully that he wouldn't be gooshing anything for a while. "Obey me!" He snarled instead. "We have to know where it's going!" Myoga hesitated, then hopped away to the south in the wake of a demon who could break his master like so much dry wood. Had that been a tear in the boy's eye? Feh! Impossible! He was just frustrated by his predicament, that was all. Who wouldn't cry under such circumstances? And Inu Yasha was prouder than most. Inu Yasha waited until Myoga was out of sight, then blinked the tear out of his eye. It was soon followed by another, then another. How could she do this to him? How? And what if some stupid humans found him and Shippo when neither of them could fight? They were too exposed where they were! If only it was Summer, when the grasses would be long enough to hide them, but no! It had to be Winter, didn't it? Short, dead grass, hard earth and bare trees. And speaking of dead, bare things... Inu Yasha's eyes roved his immediate vicinity until they found the Tetsusaiga's hilt, just within his peripheral vision. Cursed blade! When I needed you most, what was wrong with you? I was fighting to protect Kagome—isn't that what turns you into Father's fang? She's human, the demon isn't! It's just a— Inu Yasha's thoughts turned to ice. The demon took the souls of human girls. The Tetsusaiga wouldn't harm a human. The sword sensed the human souls within the demon and refused to harm her! Inu Yasha cursed his father's taste in women and wept, unable to do anything else to get out his rage and frustration at being robbed of his most powerful weapons: His body and his father's magical sword. And now he lay helpless and exposed where any demon-slaying mortal (or fellow demon) could find him. It was highly unlikely that any who found him and Shippo would be so kind as to actually help them, maybe speed them along on their mission. Without a little help, his body wouldn't heal in time to catch up to the doll demon and save Kagome. "Kagome...I'm sorry..." Inu Yasha opened his eyes to discover it was night once again. When had he fallen asleep? Just out of bloody curiosity, he tried to move and found he could shift his body ever so slightly, albeit with searing pain. A tiny hand touched his shoulder and gently pushed him down, though he hadn't actually got up all that far. | |"You shouldn't try to move," Shippo's weak voice said, and | | |was shortly followed by the rest of him as the little fox | | |half-crawled, half-dragged himself into Inu Yasha line of sight. | | |He sprawled on the ground and panted from his efforts, his | | |usually bright eyes dull with pain. | | |Inu Yasha growled. "Neither should you." | | |"I know," Shippo said with a feeble chuckle. "I was worried about| | |you. I've never seen you lose before." |  
  
"I haven't lost," Inu Yasha hissed back with a nasty glare, "this is just a set back. I sent Myoga to follow the demon. She went back south for some reason." Shippo came to the same paranoid conclusion Inu Yasha had earlier. "Kagome!" "That doesn't make sense: She already has Kagome's soul!" And yet the possibility continued to tug at his mind as he and Shippo lay on the hard, cold earth and wallowed in pain together. After a while, Inu Yasha tried moving again, but his arms and legs wouldn't support him. His ribs would do better if he could get onto his back instead of his belly. He growled in frustration and panted until his heart slowed down again. Then he got an idea: "Shippo, do you think you can pop my joints back in place?" In response, the fox looked at him like he'd just sprouted wings. "Do I look like a healer?" The growl in Inu Yasha's chest got a lot louder. "I'm not asking you to heal anything, just put them back where they belong so they can heal on their own! I saw you moving around—" "—not easily!" Shippo shouted back at him, then winced; shouting hurt. "See?" Inu Yasha seethed over the boy's lack of cooperation for a while, then hit upon another tactic: "You pop my joints, I'll pop yours..." Shippo raised an eyebrow. "You're not serious." "We'll both heal faster, you fool," Inu Yasha snapped, losing that brief moment of selflessness in a jiffy, "now just get over here and do it!" "No!" "Get. Over here." "What're you gonna do about it if I don't?" Shippo taunted and stayed firmly put. Inu Yasha roared impotently, spewing curses upon the little fox spirit and generally messing up his body far worse than it already was. "Your head's bleeding again," Shippo observed dryly once Inu Yasha's temper tantrum ended. "Why do have to be such a big baby all the time?" No response. "Inu Yasha?" He was out cold again. Shippo sighed, thinking that that was probably a good thing, then he remembered Kagome. If Inu Yasha slept too long, they'd never catch the demon before it was too late! What could Myoga hope to do against a creature that could pound Inu Yasha like this? Shippo sighed and braced himself for the pain. "You owe me for this," he muttered as he dragged himself over to Inu Yasha's unconscious form and went to work on the bigger demon's shoulder. Kaede took the cloth from Kagome's pale brow, dipped it in cool water, wrung it out and replaced it. The girl was slipping away, Kaede could feel it. She sighed and looked over her patient through the window at the bright, cheerful day beyond, then over her shoulder at the door flap, which showed no signs of opening to admit a successful Inu Yasha. It was almost two days since Kagome was attacked by the well; news of other victims like Kagome had started arriving that morning, including one report of a pair of demons, one of whom matched Inu Yasha's description. Kaede wasn't so sure that was reassuring, since the villager bringing the report also said others had given chase. Didn't say if the demons were caught, though. A sudden cold wind brought the old priestess anxiously about. "Inu Ya—" Not Inu Yasha, but definitely a demon. Standing just inside the doorway was a living doll in the most beautiful kimono Kaede had ever seen. Embedded in her throat were a dozen glittering shards of the Shikon Jewel. "What do you want? Are you the one who stole those girls' souls?" "Kagome." "Eh?" Kaede lifted an eyebrow. "Who's Kagome? Is that your name?" The doll cocked her head, puzzled, but her confusion lasted only a moment, then she recognized the girl behind the old woman. "She is Kagome." Her arm came up, and a delicate ivory finger pointed past Kaede. |So much for that trick. The demon recognized Kagome from the well.| | |Kaede took stock of her options, going over spells, curses and | | |blessings and what tools she had to deal with a soul thief. "You | | |took her soul, what more do you want?" She demanded, her eyes | | |casting about for something that could be used as a weapon should | | |the demon attack. Nothing but a broom and a pair of small fire | | |tongs. Not good. | | |Kaede's eyes bugged when the demon actually took her sandals off| | |and left them by the door before crawling into the actually living| | |portion of the house. She sat herself primly on folded legs and, | | |with hesitating movements, arranged her elaborate kimono. That | | |done, she regarded the priestess and the dying girl behind her. "I| | |want life." | |  
  
"Haven't you taken enough lives?" Kaede snapped, not at all liking the idea of a polite, courtly demon. The nice ones were the most dangerous. At least she always knew where she stood with Inu Yasha. "And why Kagome?" The doll touched the shards in her neck. "She had these. Her body must have magic to hold shards of the Jewel of Four Souls." She bowed her face to the floor. "I wish to trade." Trade? Not fight? Kaede wasn't fooled by the demon's small size and fancy manners. In demons, size wasn't always proportional to power. "Trade? What kind of trade?" The demon sat up and replied: "The jewels for her body. I want life. I will be Kagome. You will have the Jewel." "I'd rather keep Kagome," Kaede grumbled. "Give her back her soul." "She will have her soul," the doll replied in her delicate voice, "when I am she. So, her soul will be returned." Kaede shook her head, but the doll spoke first. "She will be immortal." "She doesn't want to be immortal, or a demon," Kaede retorted, fists clenched in her lap. Where was Inu Yasha when she actually wanted him? "You can't have her." "Too bad," said the demon, still calm and polite. "I know her name, I can take her anyway. Stand aside." She rose in a series of jerky motions, then surprised Kaede with a deep bow. Then a blur rippled past the old priestess, and door flap flew open and fluttered shut. "What--?" Kaede looked quickly behind her and cursed. "Kagome! Damn her!" The old woman struggled to her feet and ran from the house, forgetting her shoes in her haste, but the kidnapper was gone. She stood on the cold ground and wept frustration. All around her was the sound of weeping villagers and a cold winter wind. People cautiously approached her, asked her what was wrong and who was that lady, but Kaede's mind was on Kagome...and Inu Yasha. Where was he? And now what would they do now that the demon had her and would take Kagome's body as well as her soul? How would they put things right if the demon really could become Kagome, as she'd said? Myoga the flea arrived that evening to find a morose Kaede staring at Kagome's empty futon and weeping. "No..." he hurried to the priestess' side. "I'm too late!" Kaede blinked. "Myoga?" Her voice was hoarse and lifeless. "Where is Inu Yasha?" "Where is Kagome?" The flea asked quietly, dreading the answer. "The demon took her," Kaede replied with a sigh as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. "She came here to trade the jewel shards for Kagome's body, so she could become Kagome and have life. I refused to bargain, so she took Kagome," Kaede's voice faltered and she started to cry again. "I've never seen anything—even a demon—move that fast! I didn't even see her, then she was gone. They were both gone. Where is Inu Yasha, Myoga? Why isn't he with you?" Myoga told her about their encounter with the doll demon the night before. "Lord Inu Yasha commanded me to follow the demon, or I'd be with him still! Now what do we do?" Kaede shook her head and shrugged hopelessly. "Go back to him," she said, "tell him what's happened, even if he's too injured to fight, he must know what has become of Kagome." Myoga nodded. "At least we have more time now, since Kagome and her soul won't be separated anymore." Leaving her with that encouraging thought, he went back out into the cold to carry bad news to Inu Yasha. "Poor Kagome..." Kaede didn't watch him go. Though they now had more time, it would also be more difficult to free the real Kagome from the demon, if such a thing would even be possible. The doll said she would become Kagome—did that make this something other than possession? Exorcisms Kaede could do, but if the demon and Kagome really became one entity as the doll had seemed to suggest, then how could Kagome be separated from the demon? The only solution might be to kill Kagome, demon and all, and the one who would have to do it—the only one strong and powerful enough to do it—was Inu Yasha. "He can't do it," she thought to herself in despair. No harsh words or cavalier attitude could fool Kagome: The boy was in love, whether he realized it or not. Even if the creature he faced only looked like Kagome, he could never hurt her and certainly couldn't kill her, no matter what the consequences. Hm. If they could even find the demon again. And she had all those jewel shards, too. What if even Inu Yasha couldn't destroy her? "Kagome, forgive a weak old woman for being too slow!" Inu Yasha savored Kagome...her clean scent, the warm softness of her lips, her warm body against his. Was this really happening? Was it Kagome who wanted him, or was the doll doing this to get him. Was it just another kind of fighting? Break down his defenses, then destroy him inside and out? As her hands moved from his neck to caress his back, he decided he didn't care as long as he had this moment when all she wanted was to be in his arms. Their kisses grew hungrier and hungrier as her hands moved around his sides to chest, then lower to his hips and around between them to—  
  
Inu Yasha grabbed Kagome's wrist and pushed her away from him with a startled gasp. "No!" He squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip against the war inside him between desire and love. Desire said take her now, love said this isn't Kagome, she's just being used by a demon. He couldn't take advantage of her when she was like this!  
  
"But...Inu Yasha..." She sounded genuinely puzzled. Her big, brown eyes gazed deeply into his, still shimmering with need. All he could do was watch her lips move. "I want you! I thought you wanted me, too!" Tears pooled in her eyes and threatened to fall.  
  
Inu Yasha's grip on her wrist loosened and he drew her into his embrace again. "Please don't cry, Kagome, you know I can't stand it when you cry." He held her and soothed her, kissing her hair and being far too aware of her body against his once more.  
  
Her hands reached up to undo the tie on his kimono. "It's warm in here, don't you think?" He let her remove the coat, trembled at the sensation of her soft, gentle hands as they crept beneath his shirt to caress his skin. His heart pounded blood into his vision and his hearing until all he could hear was throbbing and all he could see was her eyes through a dark red tunnel. Then he was kissing her again, and she pulled his shirt off of his shoulders to hang about his waist. Inu Yasha didn't know when she took off her blouse and bra, but the next thing he knew he could feel her breasts against his chest, her fingernails digging into his back, her hips against his.  
  
"This isn't Kagome!" A frantic voice screamed in his head. "Kagome wouldn't throw herself at me like this! She wouldn't undress me, or touch me—oh, gods, there!" His trembling hands unbuttoned, then unzipped her skirt, and it fell to her ankles in a pool of cotton. "This is too good—no, it's wrong! Stop it!" That little voice cried to him in his mind, but he couldn't stop. He wanted this so bad. When did her underwear come off? And his pants. "Oh gods, are we really naked? Me, Kagome...alone...naked...Stop it!"  
  
Inu Yasha threw her away from him with a tortured sob. She fell to the floor, and he quickly tossed his shirt over her, turned his back and pulled on his pants. "You're not Kagome," he breathed in a husky voice. "Kagome wouldn't throw herself at me like that. We haven't even...we haven't talked about us...I don't know what our relationship is...but I know it isn't this yet." He cursed and angrily scrubbed the tears from his cheeks. Turning on her, he snarled: "I love her, and you're turning her into a whore! Let her go now!" He staggered toward her, dropped to his knees and clutched her shoulders with hands that refused to quit shaking. "Please let her go," he wept, "I'm begging you, demon! Do think I ever beg? I never beg anybody for anything, but I'll do anything if you'll just let her go!"  
  
Kagome clutched his shirt to her chest and trembled, then suddenly her expression hardened and she jerked herself out from under his grasp. "Do you really think I care what you want?! I have no use for males, I told you that already! I was willing to continue her life as it was, do those things she was already doing, even love the man she loves. She has dreamed of you and in her dreams the two of you are doing what you won't do! Are you a man, or a dog? How can you refuse Kagome?"  
  
"I can't refuse Kagome," Inu Yasha told her in a soft, miserable voice, "but I can refuse the demon who stole her body and soul." He wiped away more tears and said: "Maybe she has dreamed of being with me like that, but she was probably asleep and not in control of her dream. We're not ready to sleep together, demon, no matter what our dreams might be."  
  
Inu Yasha rose and went to the window. He leaned his arms against the glass, lay his forehead against them and looked out over the shrine grounds, then beyond to Tokyo, spread before him like a blanket of stars. Kagome's home, where her family and friends and everything familiar to her was. His world was alien, the people strange and maybe even primitive in her eyes, but she still treated everyone as an equal. Even a half-demon who solved every problem with violence, who could face a thousand demons with unflinching courage but couldn't tell her he loved her to her face. Not when she was herself, anyway. "What do you want to let her go?"  
  
"You have nothing I want."  
  
He balled his fists against the window pane. "If I could find you a different host, would you leave her?"  
  
Kagome joined him at the window, leaning against the wall beside it. She wore nothing but his shirt, which hung almost to her knees. Gods, she was sexy like that! "Her body is soaked with the Jewel's magic. It has permeated every tissue. I can be immortal in her body and retain most of my powers. In a lesser form, I'd lose all of that. Why should I leave Kagome for another? Unless you have a female demon body in mind...?"  
  
Inu Yasha shook his head. "No. I don't know any that are still alive. I was thinking of a human—not any human in particular, just—" he paused, the beginnings of a plan in his mind. He knew what Kagome would want: Find someone who was dying, who wouldn't have a hope of living unless the demon intervened and took over their body, then put the demon into that person. He certainly couldn't kill Kagome's body to drive out the demon and he honestly couldn't think of any other alternative if the demon wouldn't accept another host. "I thought...if there was a human who was dying—"  
  
"You would have me take a body, only to have it die?!" She cried and started to storm away, but he caught her shoulders again.  
  
"No! I mean, your power could save that person!" He insisted. "Then you'd have a living body! Ok, it'd be mortal, but you'd be alive and have a life! Isn't that what you wanted?"  
  
She scowled at him. "A demon is immortal. I am immortal."  
  
"Immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be," Inu Yasha snorted.  
  
Kagome raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And you would be mortal, I suppose?"  
  
Would he? Inu Yasha had been thinking about it for months now, just as he'd considered doing it for Kikyo: Use the power of the Shikon Jewel to become a full human, rather than a full demon. He would be mortal and vulnerable but he could be with Kagome. They could marry, maybe even have kids. Not that they couldn't breed the way he was, it was just that...well, she would be ostracized because of him, surely. His very nature would put her in constant danger from his many demonic enemies, who wouldn't think he was worth their trouble if he was human. "For her, I would be human."  
  
This seemed to puzzle the demon. She closed her eyes and knitted her brows in thought. After a while, she opened her eyes again and cuddled up against his chest. "You would become mortal for her, but you won't make love to her, as she wishes?"  
  
"As you wish," Inu Yasha corrected and forced his arms not to hold her, "not Kagome."  
  
She shook her head, her hair silk against his skin, and he wept with the force of will it took not to touch her. "I've been inside her for more than a day. I can see her memories, even memories of wishes and daydreams. She doesn't really know what to want, specifically, but she knows she wants you to kiss her and touch her, as you were doing before." Kagome looked up into his face, brushed away his tears with her delicate fingertips. It only made him cry harder. Then she tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled him down for a long, deep kiss. "I know what she wants," she whispered into his mouth and smiled when he lost the battle with his conscience and crushed her against him.  
  
But just as he had twice before, Inu Yasha's stubborn will won out and he pushed her away from him. "When you release Kagome, and she can tell me herself—without your influence—that she wants to make love with me, then I'll do it!" With great reluctance, he reclaimed his shirt and got dressed. With one, last, longing look at her standing naked by the window, he ran from her room, down the stairs and out into the cold winter night.  
  
His feet carried him to the well inside its little shrine, but he couldn't bring himself to jump in. "I can't leave her like this," he moaned, knowing he had to do something to save her, but unable to think of a thing. He'd never felt so utterly hopeless, not even when Kikyo had turned on him and pinned him to the God Tree. All Inu Yasha could do was crouch beside the well, his arms wrapped tightly about his knees, and sob.  
  
A gentle hand on his hair brought his face up with a start. Kagome knelt beside him and took him in her arms. "So much love," she whispered. "Is this what it feels like? I feel her love. I feel her sadness because she hurt you, even if it was me doing the hurting. She can't bear to see you in pain. I will not approach you like that again, Inu Yasha." Kagome sighed, a gust of warm air that sent a chill down his spine. "I can see it will be impossible for us to be together now that I am Kagome, so take these and continue the search alone." She pressed the jar with the shards into his hand and squeezed his fingers around it. Then she rose and left without another word, the only sounds those of her silk bathrobe shuffing against her legs.  
  
Inu Yasha stared unseeing at the tiny jar in his palm. All those times he'd tried to take this from her, had tried to keep the shards for himself—and now that he had them, he didn't want them. What good was becoming Human without her? He didn't even want to be a full demon without her. No, he didn't want to live without her. Therefore, he had to come up with a plan to get the demon out of Kagome and fast. He had a feeling he was up against a stone-cold deadline, a point of no return, after which there could be no separating the human girl from the demon doll. Since his brain wouldn't work, that meant finding brains that did, and that meant going back in time where his allies were.  
  
Resolved, Inu Yasha crawled into the well and dropped through time, crawled out again and flew to Kaede's, fervently hoping the old woman wasn't so torn with grief that she'd be unable to think. And Myouga had better be there, too, and that whelp Shippo. Surely their fondness for Kagome would propel their minds into unheard of feats of strategic genius, or there really was no hope. The lights burned brightly in the windows of Kaede's house, and Inu Yasha caught a glimpse of the old woman moving about inside. Good! Kaede was there! He alighted outside her door, pushed back the flap and stood just inside the door until she sensed someone watching her and turned around.  
  
"Inu Yasha!" She exclaimed, then: "But...you're alone. Where's Kagome? What happened?"  
  
He stepped up into the house proper and seated himself dejectedly by the fire. For the first time since he was a child he genuinely wanted someone to hold him and make it all better, but the only one he wanted to hold him was Kagome and the only thing that would make it all better was freeing her from the demon. "The demon still has her, but otherwise, I guess she's alright."  
  
His voice was almost too quiet to hear and had a roughness Kaede knew too well from the months she'd spent weeping for her sister. She sat down next to him and hesitantly lay her hand on his knee. "Tell me what happened," she urged him gently, "take you time."  
  
Inu Yasha shook his head, and a tear rolled down his cheek. "We don't have time. Where are Shippo and Myoga? We need to make a plan."  
  
"They went for a walk," Kaede replied, "to think. Don't worry: They can't get through the well without the shards or Kagome willing them through. They'll be back soon."  
  
"I didn't see them when I came out of the well," he said in dull voice. Gods, the only emotion he could muster was pain. Pain and desperation. "They can't do anything for her, anyway. The demon has no use for males." Except as sexual partners, but Inu Yasha didn't say that aloud. Memories of those few minutes he had held Kagome and felt her naked flesh against his own tormented him. Her scent was still in his nose, the satiny texture of her flesh still on his fingers, the taste of her mouth still on his tongue. He didn't realize how hard he was crying until Kaede began stroking his hair. Quickly, he wiped the moisture from his face but didn't refuse her touch. He had no memory of a grandmother, so for tonight Kaede would do. "The doll...the demon made Kagome..." he struggled to put into words what had happened, decided it wasn't Kaede's business, changed his mind. "She made Kagome try to—"  
  
"Shhh," Kaede soothed. She patted his shoulder and went to fix him something to eat. "I understand. That wasn't Kagome, Inu Yasha, just remember that."  
  
"I know!" He shot back, inwardly glad he didn't have to put into words what had transpired between him and Kagome that night. "I tried to talk her into letting Kagome go. I begged her, old woman! When have I ever begged? I offered myself. I told her I'd do anything—give her anything, if she'd just let Kagome go, but she refused. But," Inu Yasha mopped his face some more, "I think Kagome is still in there."  
  
He took the jar with the shards out of his coat and held them up for Kaede to see. She gasped in disbelief and reached out to take them, but he put them away before her hand came close. "She said she could feel Kagome's pain at seeing me hurt. So she gave these to me and said I should continue the search alone."  
  
Kaede set a bowl of rice and pickles before him, then sat down on the other side of the fire. "It sounds like Kagome has some influence over this demon. That gives me an idea."  
  
Inu Yasha had no appetite and didn't touch the food she gave him. The sake she offered, however, went down in a gulp. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and asked: "Tell me this idea of yours."  
  
"Kagome is a strong girl, as you well know," the old priestess began with a little smile; an image had leapt into her mind of Kagome forcing Inu Yasha's face in the dirt by very casually saying "sit". "Perhaps she can be reached past the demon and convinced to fight for herself and force the demon out of her body. But she would need strong motivation to fight."  
  
Inu Yasha gave her a grim smile. "Leave that part to me," he pushed the sake bowl away, suddenly wanting very much to remain sober. "I think I can convince her family to help, as well."  
  
Kaede raised an eyebrow. "What are you planning, Inu Yasha?"  
  
"She seemed," he hesitated to reveal the truth of his feelings by repeating the demon's words. Ah well, the old witch was pretty perceptive. She'd probably already figured it out. "Love really moved her. She said 'so much love. Is this what it feels like?' I think..." he blushed and looked away, "I think she was feeling what Kagome feels for...for me."  
  
"Not what you feel for her?" Kaede prompted gently.  
  
Inu Yasha bowed his head but still couldn't meet her eyes. "I already told her what I felt, so she knew," he took a couple of deep breaths and added: "She knows I...I love Kagome." There, he'd said it. Confession made. Let the teasing begin. No, there would be no teasing, not tonight, not the way things were. And yet, teasing would have made things seem right somehow, like it was ok, like everything would work out.  
  
Kaede said: "I could tell. You've never been subtle, Inu Yasha." She smiled at him with more warmth than she was wont to show anyone ordinarily, but these circumstances were special. This was Kikyo's second chance to have the love she'd lost so long ago. Kaede said a quick, silent prayer to her sister's spirit, asking her to lend Kagome her strength, then said to Inu Yasha: "If anything will give Kagome the strength to free herself from the demon, it's your love." Her smile broadened. "She's not too subtle, either, you know. Even if she hasn't told you yet, I can tell what she feels for you. Just don't blow it this time."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Inu Yasha protested with some of his old angst, but Kaede just chuckled.  
  
Just then Shippo burst in the door, followed closely by Myoga who hopped straight onto his master's rosary and cried: "Thank the gods you're safe! Where's Kagome?"  
  
Shippo plopped himself next to Inu Yasha and began eating the other demon's untouched dinner. "Is she ok? Recovering from the demon, huh?"  
  
Inu Yasha gawked at them. They just assumed he'd succeed! The idea of Inu Yasha failing to save their beloved Kagome from peril was so unthinkable, those two couldn't even accept the possibility. There was Shippo, happily shoveling rice into his face, and Myoga sucking away at Inu Yasha's neck like everything was great and Kagome would join them in a few days to resume their quest for the jewel shards. "You idiots!" Inu Yasha roared. He pinched Myoga off his neck and tossed him into Shippo's rice bowl. "She's not ok! The demon won't let her go, and I wasn't about to kill Kagome to make her! We still have work to do, and you morons are sitting there stuffing your faces like it's New Year's day!"  
  
"She's not alright?" Shippo asked in astonishment. "I can't believe you just left her when she's still possessed!" The fox jumped up, scattering his meal and the flea all over the floor, and threw himself onto Inu Yasha's throat. "How could you leave her?!"  
  
Inu Yasha picked Shippo off of him and threw him at Kaede, who caught the little kitsune and held onto him while Inu Yasha explained the plan. "I want you to come with me," Inu Yasha said. He stood in the doorway, looking out onto the dark village and shivering in the winter wind. Cold. He'd never felt the cold before, but then he'd never had the heat of Kagome's kiss to compare it to. "All of you, if you think you can make the trip. She gave me the shards, so I should be able to get us through the well. I want her family to help us—everybody who loves her. Even that Hojo punk, if I thought I could find him. Kagome needs a reason to fight, and love seems to be the thing that has the most affect on the demon."  
  
"And since you love her most of all..." Myoga began but let the thought trail off into silence. His master didn't argue with him for once, just nodded and went back to staring at the night.  
  
Shippo went to stand beside Inu Yasha and put a tiny hand on his friend's leg. "I'm ready to go now, if you are."  
  
"So am I," added Myoga.  
  
Kaede said: "Let me tell the elders I'll be talking a short trip, then I'll be ready to leave, as well."  
  
Inu Yasha nodded. As he walked out into the cold, he said: "I'll wait for you at the well, but I won't wait long." Kagome awoke with a start to find the lights on and her bedroom full of people. Her mother, her brother, her grandfather, Shippo, Myoga, Kaede and...him. "Inu Yasha," she said with a deep, serious frown, "I thought I told you I didn't want to see you anymore."  
  
A pain went through his heart for an instant, but Inu Yasha reminded himself that Kagome wasn't in control. Obviously, the demon didn't realize yet what was up and thought her family would take her side. How wrong she was. "You don't want to see me anymore because you know I'm Kagome's best reason for fighting you." He gestured to the others in the room with a sweep of his arm. "Love is a force you can't defeat, isn't it? Here's her family and her friends from my time. I would've brought her friends from here, but I don't know where to find them and I don't think they'd understand about you."  
  
Kagome's grandfather had a rosary in his hand and was busily praying on it. "Demon! By the love I have for my granddaughter, I command you to come out!" He shook the beads at Kagome, who just stared at him like he'd sprouted wings. Gramps shook the beads even harder and commanded more loudly: "COME OUT!"  
  
"That won't work," Kaede advised him.  
  
"But she's possessed!" He protested. "An exorcism is what's needed here!"  
  
Kaede shook her head. "This is no ordinary possession. The doll has become Kagome, but there's still a part of Kagome that can respond to us. You need to appeal to Kagome, not the demon."  
  
Inu Yasha held up a hand for silence. "Leave this to me." In front of all these people. Oh, gods, Kagome, you don't know what this is costing me! He sat on the edge of her bed, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, he looked deeply into hers and spoke to her in a gentle, careful voice. Each word hurt like hell to say in front of her family and friends, but for her...for her he'd tear out his own heart. "Kagome, I know you can hear me. I need you. I don't want to live without you." He held up the jar with the Shikon shards in it. "She gave these to me and told me to go on alone. Remember how bad I wanted these things? I don't care about them anymore. Without you they mean nothing to me." He passed them off to Kaede, who tucked them into her kimono. Inu Yasha licked his lips and tried to laugh a little. "Bet you never thought you'd see me do that, huh? You have to fight her, Kagome. I have to know if what she said is true...if," he faltered and squeezed his eyes against the tears, "if you really want me and...love me. 'Cause if you do, then I swear in front of all these people—in front of your family—that when we have the whole jewel, I'll use it to become human and stay with you." The tears flowed freely now. "If you won't fight her, if you won't help us set you free—if you're lost, Kagome, I don't want to live anymore."  
  
Inu Yasha hugged himself and stared at the wall by her bed, unable to look into eyes that belonged to Kagome but had a demon looking out of them. He wished she'd hold him, then hoped she wouldn't because he'd really lose it in front of them all. He'd just sob and wail like a little baby and beg her to come back to him, beg and beg and beg like a simpering fool. Then he decided his pride could go to hell and lay his head down in her lap and cried. "Please, please, please, Kagome! Don't let her do this to you!"  
  
Sota climbed onto the bed and put his arms around his sister's neck and cried on her shoulder. "Please fight, Kagome! I know you can do it! Please?!"  
  
Her mother encouraged her, then her grandfather and Myoga. Shippo snuggled in next to Sota and begged Kagome not to leave him. "If you leave me," he sniffled, "I'll just have this stupid jerk for a friend!" He pointed at Inu Yasha, who didn't even try to form a come back. "And...and a flea!"  
  
Myoga jumped onto Shippo's shoulder and demanded to know what was so bad about that. "Haven't I been a good friend, Kagome? You have to come back—if only to keep my reckless master out of trouble! And what will I do if he kills himself? I'll be all alone with this mangy furball!" He pointed at Shippo's head, then lost his ability to be witty and started crying, too. "You can't let Inu Yasha die, Kagome!"  
  
They wept in silence for a while, then Kagome said, quite calmly: "This is what I want. I want love. But you only love Kagome. I can't leave without a place to go and I destroyed my doll body."  
  
Inu Yasha looked up with hope in his eyes. "Then if we find you another host, you'll leave Kagome?"  
  
Kagome hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Do you know how lonely I have been, trapped inside a lifeless body? It was cold." A pair of tears slipped from her eyes and down her face to drip onto Inu Yasha's hand. He held the hand to his chest as if he'd found a treasure. "You have very little time. By morning, there will be nothing left of Kagome." She glanced at the clock on her night stand and recited the time: "It's 1:07am. Better hurry."  
  
Inu Yasha sighed and turned to Kagome's mother. "Where can we find someone who's dying?"  
  
"Dying?!" Kagome protested, then stopped. "I understand. A dying young girl who is suddenly restored to full health would be even more beloved to her family." She looked away and told them sadly: "Healing such a body would use the last of my power. I would be fully mortal."  
  
"You would be a normal human being," Kaede corrected her in a kind voice, "isn't that what you really wanted?"  
  
Kagome's mother stroked her daughter's hair. "You could fall in love, just as my Kagome has. Perhaps you'll get married and have children and grandchildren. You won't be alone anymore." She dropped her hand suddenly and looked away, unable to keep up the pretense of caring about the demon who'd taken her little girl's body and soul. "Please let my baby go!"  
  
"Higurashi-san," Inu Yasha asked again, "where can we find such a girl?"  
  
She took several breaths to regain her composure, but before she could reply, Sota exclaimed: "The hospital! I'll bet we could find somebody at a hospital!"  
  
"In intensive care!" Mom added enthusiastically.  
  
Kagome nudged Inu Yasha out of her way, got up and went to her closet to find something to wear. "I'll have to go with you," she explained, "to make the transfer." When nobody moved to leave, she narrowed her eyes at them and cleared her throat. "A little privacy?" Sota's idea proved fruitful, though it took Inu Yasha, Kagome and her mother more than two hours to find a terminally ill teenage girl. Lots of older people, some middle aged, but few young girls. While Kagome and her mother spoke to the girl's family to determine if the girl would be an acceptable host (while revealing nothing of the truth), Inu Yasha waited in a tree outside the ailing young woman's window. He could barely see her through all the tubes and machines that were stuck into her body. She was emaciated and frighteningly pale. Her breathing was shallow and labored. Inu Yasha wondered if she'd even make it through the rest of the night if the demon rejected her. "Please take her!" He prayed.  
  
When Kagome entered the room, his heart leapt for joy. He watched her approach the girl's bed and reach out a hand to touch her shaven head, trace a finger along a new scar on her scalp. Then she leaned over and placed a kiss on the girl's lips. Both girls jerked once, then Kagome leaned back with a look on her face that was a mixture of joy and sadness and began to cry. After a moment, the other girl's eyes opened. She blinked, then saw Kagome. The two exchanged a few words, then smiled at each other. With a wink, Kagome took a breath and ran excitedly from the room. Soon the girls' mothers charged in, the sick girl's mother weeping for joy when her daughter spoke to her. They embraced around the tubing. Kagome pressed a button on the wall beside the bed. In a few moments, a man and a woman in white clothes hurried in. With a smile, Kagome looked straight at him, pointed out the window, then left the room. | | Inu Yasha jumped down from the tree to wait for | | |Kagome—the real Kagome. What would she say? Of course, she'd | | |be grateful to him for saving her, but what about the other stuff?| | |Would she remember what they'd almost done while she was under | | |the demon's influence? Would she hate him for almost taking | | |advantage? For taking off her skirt? He fidgeted and paced around | | |the tree. Would she remember that he'd confessed his love for | | |her, that he'd told her he didn't want to live without her? | | |That he'd sworn before her family that he'd use the jewel to | | |become fully human and be with her forever? What would she say | | |about that? | | | A sound! He closed his eyes and sniffed the air, eager to | | |catch her scent on the wind. The cold air froze in his nostrils, | | |but he didn't care because the breeze carried the sweetest | | |fragrance in the world to his nose. Then she was on him, her arms | | |around his neck, her lips pressed against his, their tears | | |mingling between their happy faces. Inu Yasha squeezed her tight, | | |as if afraid she might blow away on the winter wind. He breathed | | |her name into her mouth, then drowned in the sea of sensation that| | |was Kagome. | | | After a long while, she lay her head against his chest and | | |sighed. "I love you, too, Inu Yasha." |  
  
THE END 


End file.
